See More Avatars from: In the Fur Enterprises
27 Jun 10 | List Price: 500L$
This avatar will be the first review we’ve ever done for a member of the pachyderm family. In the Fur’s latest avatar takes this massive animal and anthropomorphicises it in a sufficiently human size.
Out of the Box:
- 6 Trunk States
- 4 Eyelid States
- 3 Ear States
- 4 Jaw States
- Trumpeting and Rumble Sound Effects
- Tail-Swish Toggle On/Off
- Tail Down/To the Side Toggle
- Eye Colour (RGB palette)
- Full-Bright Eye Toggle
- Ear-Twitching Toggle On/Off
- Ear-Twitching on Touch (Toggle On/Off)
- Muzzle Talking Function (Toggle On/Off)
- Ears Fold during typing (Toggle On/Off)
- 10% of Proceeds go to the World Wildlife Fund
- Limited Edition Pink Elephant – 50% of proceeds go to the WWF
Measurement Value Script Time / Memory (With HUD) ~0.1ms / TBD Script Time / Memory (without HUD) ~0.1ms / TBD Avatar Rendering Cost (Scale Here) ~660 Modify? Yes Copy? Yes Transferable? No
Build and Skin:
ITFE is has, in the past, demonstrated some skill for body textures on previous avatars. This avatar’s skin textures over the body are a mixed bag, however. In a way, they have managed to get the ‘texture/feel’ of an elephant down; rough and leathery. To that end, there are many ‘cracks’ and depressions in the skin that portray those qualities in an elephant fairly well. On the other hand, however, the skin is slightly more underdeveloped than we have seen in the past. The highlighting and the shading over the body itself give the skin more depth and the body some dimension, but the skin still leaves something to be desired.
The attachments have smaller wrinkles and depression on their textures, and as such look a great deal more realistic and elephantine. However, the body’s repeat density for the skin is low; meaning that all of the little wrinkles and depressions are blown up. The result is that compared to the attachments like the head, the body parts not covered with attachments look less well done.
All the same, the textures elsewhere on the avatar do their job alright, especially on the head. As well, the sculpt quality is clean and well positioned. There are some creases here and there, but for the most part, the quality of the craftsmanship makes this one of ITFE’s strongest avatars.
Attachments:
Lower Body:
Elephants have huge, blocky feet and legs, and this avatar follows that closely. This avatar has simple, circular feet with dark leathery bottoms, and the signature white toe-nails on the front of the feet. There are no real articulate features, as elephant feet and legs are very blocky. The leg follows suit with a very solid, thick shape which consolidates the entire leg and foot into a thick, tree-trunk-like image. In short, when considering the textures and all, the lower body attachments actively personify what a bipedal elephant might look like.
The tail also follows suit with a faithful reinterpretation of the elephant tassle. The majority of the tail itself is made up a sculpt, which makes the shape organic and smooth in appearance. The tassled end is made of flexible prims, and the textures are spot-on without any white artifacts around the edges of the semi-transparent hair texture.
Upper Body:
The only attachments on the upper body, other than the head are the cross between elephantine hoofs and human hand, as well as the wrist-prims. The wrist-prim plays a simple function of smoothing out the transition between hand-attachment arm nicely. We noticed that some avatar version include these, but sometimes they don’t. The hands themselves are rather large, as one would expect for an anthropomorphic elephant. Tipped with a white nail similar to those on the feet, the hands are set in a fairly relaxed, open pose, and compliment the avatar neatly.
Head:
Now, the head for this avatar is the real centre-piece, making the rest of the body very much less important in comparison.
This head manages to pull off a good cross between human and elephant facial features, accentuated by a nicely done trunk. But first, we’ll start with the ears. As per an elephant, the ears are wide, very large and almost flag-like. The textures accentuate the slight folds in each ear very nicely, which provides dimension to these large, flapping appendages. As mentioned in the avatar specs, these ears twitch on their own, have a few different positions, and can fold back while the user types.
The headshape is made up of full prims, rather than the half-prim, half-shape-head that many ITFE avatars use. They’ve opted for a semi-feral head shape, with a high forehead, and the eyes located lower on the face. This is a very solid combination of facial features which makes everything seem proportional and well designed. There is a fair bit of creasing as several different sculpted prims make up the entirety of the head, but otherwise, the face came together rather neatly. There’s the slightest bit of a shadow on the left side of the face; just enough not to be a problem as much as help accentuate the face.
The eyes employed utilise the shape eyes underneath the prim head, and use them very well. These eyes follow the camera, and the textures really work at providing a look of intelligence in them. The eyelid sculpts and brows appear leathery and thick, also fairly true to the original animal. Users are able to change the eye colour and change the eyelid states through the included HUD.
Of course, other than the trunk, a defining feature of the elephant’s face is the tusks. Female versions of the avatar receive tusks that are fairly shorter and blunted, while males receive longer, more arched tusks that jut out in front of the face. Thankfully, the ivory tusks do not merely jut from the face, but a base is made for them from a slight concave indentation in what could be described as the face’s cheeks. Recent purchasers of the avatar will get both the male and female versions of the tusks regardless of which gender they initially buy.
Behind the trunk, (we promise to talk about it next) is a fairly small, almost completely unnoticeable mouth. The trunk and the tusks really take up a lot of the face’s real estate, similar to a real elephants; leaving a small, triangular-shaped bottom jaw and lip. When users type, the jaw moves open and closed fairly neatly. The inside of the mouth is the least detailed part of the head, but nobody would really ever see it because of the trunk in front.
At last, there is the trunk. This is the most defining feature of the face; with several different positions that exemplify the flexibility of the appendage. The texturing is very well done, both on the underside and the top; and the shape of the trunk in each state is excellent, right down to the tip. The only way the trunk could really have been made substantially better was if it were all one prim. It’s very clear that the creator worked a great deal on each trunk state, and it shows. Included photos in this review show some of the different trunk states better than I can describe it (See Above).
Features and Heads-Up Display:
ITFE has revamped their HUD style somewhat, opting for a 3-page HUD driven with icon options instead of a dialog menu. This is slightly better and a fair bit more intuitive. However, the HUD is a bit small, so users who have larger screens may have trouble seeing what the options are. For the most part, aside from the occasional glitches, they do the job they were made to do.
- Face
- 6 Trunk States
- 4 Eyelid States
- 3 Ear States
- 4 Jaw States
- Sounds/Tail
- Trumpeting and Rumble Sound Effects
- Tail-Swish Toggle On/Off
- Settings
- Eye Colour (RGB palette)
- Full-Bright Eye Toggle
- Ear-Twitching Toggle On/Off
- Ear-Twitching on Touch (Toggle On/Off)
- Muzzle Talking Function (Toggle On/Off)
- Ears Fold during typing (Toggle On/Off)
- Eye Colour (RGB palette)
Customisation:
This avatar is easy to modify as it is copiable and modifiable. As such, there is a large potential for this avatar to be used for numerous different kinds of roleplaying experiences. To that end, users will find the avatar very flexible.
Conclusion:
The In the Fur Enterprises Elephant is one of the best avatars we have seen from this company to date. While there are issues with the body skin being of slightly lower quality, the numerous sculpt creases, and the slightly buggy HUD, the avatar still holds up well for use. The creator has done a good job of capturing the essence of an elephant through the well constructed face, and the overall avatar shows that the creator has considerable potential for full-prim heads. Many people do not give elephants a second look in Second Life, so for those looking for something just a little bit different, this avatar could be a good option.
Tagged african, elephant, in the fur, In the Fur Enterprises, ITFE, pachyderm.
